Our first night wild camping

After a very bad nights sleep I woke up at 6:30am and Ellie woke up at around 8am. The people in the chalet next door to us must have been deaf, because there TV was up so load we could clearly hear it in our room. To top it off our room just got hotter and hotter and by 1:30am I gave up trying to sleep and went an sat out by the swimming 25 meters from our room and I could still hear next doors TV. The planes landing and taking off also didn’t help and although they did stop big planes at 1am, at 6:30sm on the dot they were coming back in.
At 8:30am we went for a cooked breakfast of Bacon, eggs and chips and then had a shower and sorted our stuff out for leaving.
Pieter and Hilda were supposed to pick us up from our guest lodge between 11 and 12 but by 1pm they hadn’t arrived and slight panic set in, but at 2pm just before the heavens opened they arrived and we loaded up his Toyota Land Cruiser and trailer and off we went. Unbeknown to us another guest had booked to come on our trip 2 days ago an American girl called Becky. So off we went to a different airport to collect her.
On the way there was a mega thunderstorm and it even blocked the sun out it was so dark and heavy with rain. It took us 2 hours to get to the airport and it should have taken us 30 minutes, but eventually we picked Becky up and we are now a group of 5. Pieter who is native South African, Hilda, from Norway, Becky from New York and us from the UK. All we have in common is adventure.
Our first stop and first camp is Pilingsberg National Park, and after once again driving through mega thunderstorms we arrived at around 5pm. At the entrance we were greeted by hundreds of impala’s and after Pieter checked us in, he drove us straight to our first camp spot.
It is a designated camping area and although there are other campers here we feel pretty isolated. There’s even 2 motorhomes just like Wanda. We all unloaded the trailer and Pieter gave us all our tents and camping gear and each of set to work putting the tents up and then putting in the bedding and lights, whoever was finished first went in to help the next person. While Pieter sorted out the fire and food and got the drinks flowing. Already we are becoming a little team. Pieter cooked a lovely meal of South African sausage, with corn on the cob and salad on an open fire and then we all sat around the fire talking talking before finally calling it a day and crawling into our tents at 9:30pm.
This is it, Our first night wild camping in a tent in Africa!!Read more